Towards a city
After a five hour long bus journey, I stepped my feet for the
first time in the gravel of this city. The air, I realized, wasn't as pure as
it was back in my tiny little hometown. But I couldn’t care more
about that, I was gawking at the tall buildings. The bus had dropped me
directly in front of the residential site where I was going to stay. I started
walking nervously towards my building which was also very tall. I was still in
amazement, the first obvious feeling every small town boy would feel.
That was five months ago when I shifted
to Guwahati. A city that within such a small span of time shaped up a lot of my
dreams, a city that has given me new ambitions, a city I have started to love. It is for this love that I have decided to
document my life in this city in a new weekly feature called #CityDiaries. The
first post should be up and live this week. This current post is all about the
city, just to give you an image of Guwahati.
Being the gateway into the whole north-eastern
part of India, Guwahati is the most developed and busiest city in this side of
our country. Rising up on the banks of the mighty Brahmaputra River, Guwahati
is one of the fastest developing cities in India. The urban part of this city
has always been growing – with newer and popular city corridors developing up
every year. All this new corridors are expanding equally in all directions from
the core which makes the city proportional and thus maintains its design. From what I have seen, the busiest
places in Guwahati are Paltan Bazaar,
Fancy Bazaar and Pan Bazaar. These three makes the central core of the
urban city. Though other areas like Ganeshguri
and Chandmari also remain
crowded. Popular destinations around the city like the Kamakhya Mandir,
Kolakhetro (museum), Accoland, Umananda island spice up the design of Guwahati.
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| The Saraighat Bridge. Photos by Utpal Deka. |
The city is widely connected to not only
every other states in the northeast but to the rest of the India too. The
intra-city connections are also fairly good. A few flyovers have been built up
in the years and they have contributed largely towards maintaining the ever
growing traffic of this city. It should be also noted that a few connecting
roads are still narrow and ill-maintained. If you ever have to ride to Chandmari from Bhangagarh via the Rajgarh
link, you might end up experiencing the bumpiest ride of your life. But all
parts of the city are very properly connected.
With buses (popularly known as city bus) operated by private sectors and the
Assam State Transport Corporation always prowling around the city, you should
be least worried about being stranded. This summer, ASTC also introduced AC
buses into Guwahati, which are extremely awesome. Trust me. Also autos and cabs
too are available all around.
The people of the city are always in a drive towards developing. I must say,
this city do not host the friendliest of humans. But everybody has this unique
collectiveness, that props up whenever there is the need. Guwahati is home to a
vast variety of culture with all kinds of people from different backgrounds making
their living here. This city demands a fast paced life and therefore people are
generally busy here, always doing a thing or another. But that is what adds to
the City Life. You don’t stop here, you can’t – you just keeping moving
forward.
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